Thermal printing is becoming increasingly popular and cost effective in the retail industry. With thermal printing, the ink is pre-coated on paper-based media where it is subsequently and selectively revealed by applying heat from a thermally-enabled printer (thermal printer). One obvious benefit to this technique is the lack of a need to purchase consumables, such as ink or laser cartridges. Another benefit is that the thermal printer may require less maintenance and may not have to be serviced as often, since there is no ink running through components of the printer and no cartridges to continually remove and install within the printer.